Some say that ‘whom’ is going out of fashion and that you should not bother about it at all. This sounds too easy don’t you think? So, in the meantime …
If you could replace the word in question with he/she/they/I - it’s who.
If you’d say him/her/them/me - it’s whom.
It seems to be working for me but I’m sure that like all good rules there will be an exception that will cause me grief.
Writing dialogue takes practice. Content is one thing, punctuation is another.
A lifetime of formulating reports and briefings did not prepare me for this aspect of fiction writing at all.
We are told that dialogue done well, particularly with the punctuation correct, is seamless and goes unnoticed by the reader. Too true. I do not have any idea how my favourite written dialogue passages are punctuated.
There is plenty of sage advice on how to write good, engaging and compelling dialogue; but it is near to useless if you have not got the punctuation under control!
Habits can be productive but they can also be tiresome. They can provide us with the ready excuse of ‘missed the usual time to begin so no point in starting now’.
I read somewhere, way too long a time ago, that it is healthy to change your habits from time to time. Small changes, tea instead of coffee, shower after breakfast instead of before, turn left instead of right when taking the dog out, catch a different train. Just for one day, if only once a day, every day change just one thing in your routine.
Writing, constantly and consistently, invariably implies a habit. But we can write anywhere, anytime, if we want. So when does the habit become a hindrance instead of a help? Well, I need a change so that I can get my productive writing habit back.
So, I am trying out blogging. It is writing, just not writing a short word story. It is a start, the rest will come and short word story writing habits will be formed again (hopefully).
In this spirit today I am also making another a questionable, small change in habit. I am not having a coffee until it is done.
Let the blogging begin, let the coffee flow, let the short word stories come.
Rest assured that I will be starting with coffee again tomorrow, some other habit must change!
